PM must break his silence on allegations raised by Satya Pal Malik: Congress

Congress Spokesperson Supriya Shrinate says Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi must break his silence on the allegations raised by former Governor Satya Pal Malik over the Pulwama attack

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must break his silence on the allegations raised by former Jammu & Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik regarding the Union government’s negligence that reportedly led to the death of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the Pulwama terror attack in 2019, Congress’s national spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said on Saturday.

Addressing the media here, she said Mr. Modi, the Union government and the BJP were answerable to the families of the martyrs of the Pulwama attack, who were thinking whether their dear ones would be alive today had the government not been “apathetic and negligent”.

Pointing out that two weeks had passed since Mr. Malik made the allegations, she said the BJP and the Union government had conspicuously gone silent. Mr. Malik, she said, was no ordinary person and held the highest Constitutional position in Jammu & Kashmir when the Pulwama attack happened. Moreover, he enjoyed complete confidence of Mr. Modi, and had served as the Governor of Goa, Bihar and Meghalaya too.

Referring to Mr. Malik’s allegations, she asked why did the Union government not provide aircraft that were demanded for transport and, instead, allowed such an unprecedentedly large number of personnel to be transported by road, ignoring intelligence reports on possible terror attacks. According to Mr. Malik, the Prime Minister asked him to “shut up” when he said it was the government’s negligence that led to the loss of 40 lives.

Ms. Shrinate expressed disappointment with the national media, especially television channels, which, according to her, had failed to discuss the issue. This was in stark contrast to the time when these channels lined up to interview former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad when he levelled “baseless allegations” against Rahul Gandhi, she added.

On the recent controversy involving the BJP and the DMK in Tamil Nadu over two audio clips that purportedly contained the voice of Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, she blamed the BJP’s Information Technology wing for being the “biggest fake news factory in the world”.

Alleging that the BJP’s IT wing was notorious for weaponising fake news to malign reputation and create hatred, she said there was no doubt that the party could use technology to create deep fakes and fabricated audio, as claimed by Mr. Rajan.